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Call it an occupational hazard, but I read way more than my share of gambling-related news stories every week. All too often, as of late, they’ve been a collective bummer.
Sad-sack articles about pro athletes having their careers wrecked over wagering, exclusives that concern gambling-oriented misadventures fleecing the savings of college kids, city fathers preferring that gambling dens locate somewhere else all add up to a red-tinged frown face.
Sick of it all, I’m happy to report that there is good news in gambling. Let’s put on our happy faces and soak it all up.
Fittingly the tour of mirth begins in Las Vegas, where tales of underdogs winning money, is, of course, spirit lifting for all of us.
A few months ago, the Indian casino boss Santhosh Suvarna showed up a roster of professional poker players by taking down the World Series of Poker’s $250,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold’em tournament.
He won some $5.4 million. Best of all, Suvarna proved to be the greatest sport through the nail-biting ups and downs that got him his gold bracelet. Even during the worst of it – though he ultimately busted a load of lauded pros – he rarely stopped smiling
Just as striking: What might be the luckiest slot machine in Las Vegas.
Dragon Link seems to be blessed. Back in March, it was announced that a person at Caesars Palace won three jackpots on the machine in one night. That was for a total of $667,750. Then, less than a month later, that very same slots savant took down an additional $692,500, courtesy of the Dragon.
Last week, two gamblers hit jackpots for $1 million apiece on a single Dragon Link machine at the Wynn.
Small fry when compared to the biggest slot machine wins ever, but not a bad night out.
I’ve never been much of a slots player, both in Vegas and at online casinos, and I’m not sure that these lucky spins will convert me? – especially when you consider that the 692K windfall came from a $2,500 wager – but I still love to read about guys who turn the tables on one armed bandits.
These players did it, and I salute their good fortune while hoping that they don’t blow their fresh piles of cash on, well, slot machines.
Also, not much of a slots player is Bruno Mars. He’s better known for anteing up at poker.
Nevertheless, media rumors circulated last year that he was so in debt, to MGM Resorts International – to the tune of $50 million, blown in the pit – that his $90 million per year residency with the casino company would leave him with only $1.5 million in take-home.
The remainder, it was alleged, would go toward paying off debts to MGM. As per the report, the casino “basically” had a stranglehold on the guy.
MGM denied everything and Mars kept his mouth shut – until a reporter from Las Vegas Review Journal recently buttonholed the entertainer after a surprise performance and tried to elicit a response to the rumors.
Mars provided the kind of answer that brings a smile to the face of any gambler.
Whether Mars is a debt-riddled degen or not (and there’s no reason to believe that he is), this is the perfect response to the allegations. Embrace the neg and let the public wonder.
And if you can bring something lighthearted to a gambling scribe’s grim newsfeed, all the better.
